Last fall, I was selected as a recipient of the 2018 Jerry F. Tardy Fellowship by the Council of Alumni Association Executives.
The fellowship is named in honor of the late Jerry F. Tardy, president and CEO of the Indiana University Alumni Association, who served as a great advocate of the alumni profession and a mentor to numerous colleagues throughout his career.
His legacy has resulted in former IUAA staff or alumni now serving in chief alumni officer positions at the University of Alaska, Ball State University, Butler University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Dayton, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
As the Tardy Fellow, I conducted a research project focused on alumni career and personal wellness, a topic lauded by the selection committee as path-breaking work. I presented my findings at the CAAE Winter Institute in February 2018. Below is a compilation of my research that I hope you will consider investing time and energy into to bettering your wellness as an alumni leader.
Wellness and health impact careers and continue to be a hot topic for all generations we serve in alumni relations. Whether it’s Millennials valuing flexibility and clean eating, Generation X searching for work-life integration while caring for children and aging parents, Boomers living longer and retiring later, or the Traditionalists looking to experience their golden years in a more active way, our multi-generational alumni populations are health conscious and interested in investing in their wellness.
Why wellness?
Global wellness is $3+ trillion industry that grew 10.6% from 2013 to 2015, according to research from the Global Wellness Institute. Our alumni are already investing in this market. Through a holistic approach to serving the “whole” alumnus/a throughout their lives, alumni can discover work-life integration and lead healthier, longer lives that will ultimately benefit our alumni relations profession through time, talent, treasure, and university reputation.
Defining wellness: An active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life; the act of fulfilling potential through change and growth.
Career wellness
Only 20% of people can answer “yes” to the question, “Do you like what you do each day?” With 67% of Americans disengaged in their careers, it’s no wonder that Gallup identifies career wellness as the most essential of their five tenants. For those who have high career wellness, they are twice as likely to be thriving in their lives. For those who have supervisors who play to their strengths, only 1 in 100 employees are disengaged.
Best practices in career wellness: Invest in StrengthsFinder coaching, create a strengths-based culture, top-down behavioral mirroring
Ideas for alumni programming: Offer robust career development programming beyond resume review and mock interviews
Social wellness
We influence one another through relationships, directly and indirectly affecting the wellbeing of second and third degree connections. Our relationships have an impact on our ability to heal more quickly from an illness, affect levels of stress, and our relationships’ physical proximity and levels of wellness of those nearby affect our wellness too.
Best practices in social wellness: Encourage social interaction, deepening and investing in relationships with co-workers and alumni
Ideas for alumni programming: Consider a human capital campaign, emphasizing on outreach to alumni in a new geographic area
Physical wellness
The physical and economic costs of being unhealthy are growing even faster than ever predicted and 75% of medical costs are due to largely preventable conditions. Sleep, nutrition, movement. It can’t get simpler than those three key elements that can help prevent most illnesses and diseases. These three elements reduce stress, boost confidence, influence the positive effects of the other wellness tenants, and promote higher energy levels.
Best practices in physical wellness: Serve as a role model, encourage others to adopt practices for stress reduction, increased energy
Ideas for alumni programming: Identify subject matter experts to deliver resources to implement better physical wellness habits
Your wellness, your leadership
As an alumni leader, you have the opportunity to model the way and be a catalyst for change. From improving your own wellness and the positive effects you’ll have on your friends, family, and community, it’s crucial for you to take the lead in making wellness a priority for your entire network. By taking action to better yourself, consider small steps in one area (example: in career wellness, be sure to take PTO and implement a strengths-based culture with StrengthsFinder) and, as we now understand, other wellness tenants will start to fall into place.